The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-08-18

Il
the next ten or twenty years to make a
great fortune, and so I shall leave nv
family, when go out of this world, very
comfortable" How do you know you are
going to live ten or twenty years2 If we
could look up the highway of the future,
we would see it crossed by pneumonias, and
pleurisies, and consumptions, and colliding
rail trains, and runaway horses, and break
ing bridges, and funeral PROFESSIONS. Are
you so certain that you are going 10 live
ten or twenty years, you can warrant your
household any comfort after you go away
from them? Beside that, the vast majority
OF men die poor! Two only out of hun
dred succeed in business. Are you very
certain you are going TO h. one of those
t"ot idch one day, poor the next. A
man in New York got $1,000, ,00N, and the
money turned his brain and he died in q
lunatic asylum. All his property was left
with the business firm, and they swamped
it; and then the family of the insane man
was left without O dollar. In eighteen
months the prosperity, the insanity, the
insolvency, and the complete domestic
ruin. Beside that, there are men who die
solvent, who are insolvent before they get
under the ground, or before their estate is
setteld up. How soon the auctioneei's 8
mallet can knock the life out of an estate.
A man thinks the properts is worth Sl5,-
600; under a forced sale it brings 1000.
The business man takes advantage of the
crisis and compels the widow of the de-
ceased partner to sell out to him at ruin
GUS price, or lose all. The stock was sup
posed to be very valuable, but it has been
so "watered" that when the executor tries
to sell it he is laughed out of Wall Street,
n 1nTo frat fg @,.1, p,1 I.-N h.,
rogate to wind up the whole affair. The
estate was supposed at the mans death to
be worth $GO, 200; but after the indebted
ness had been met, and the bills of the
doctor and undertaken, and the tombstone
cutter have been paid, there is nothing
left. That means the children are to come
home from school and go to work. That
means complete hardship of the wife
turned out with nothing but a needle to
fight the great battle of the world. Tear
down the lambrequins, close the piano,
rip up the Administer, sell out the ware
robe, and let the mother take a child in
each hand and trudge out into the dessert
of the world. A life insurance would have
hindered all that.
But" says some one, 81 am a man of
small means, and | can't afford to pay the
premium" That is sometimes a lawful
and genuine excuse, and there is no an
swer to it; but in nine cases out Of ten
when a man says that he smokes NJ in
cigars, and drinks down i'll wine, aud ey-
pends in luxuries enough money TO have
paid the premium on life insurance
policy which would have kept his family
from beggary when he is dead A man
ought to put himself down on the strictest
economy until he can meet this Christian
necessity. You have no right to the lux
urie5 of life until you have made such pro-
vision. | admire what was said by Rev.
DIR. Guthrie. the great So ottish preacher.
few years before his death he stood In a
public meeting and declared,
"When came to Edinburgh the people
sometimes laughed at my blue stockings
and at my cotton umbrella, and they said I
looked Ike common plowman, and thew
derided me because lived in a house for
which paid S35 rent a year, and often
times ! walked when l would have been
very glad TO have a cab; but, gentlemen, L
did all that because I wanted to pay the
premium on life insurance that would
keep my family comfortable if l should
die" That take TO be the right express
ion OF an honest, intelligent, Christian
man.
The utter indifference of many people on
this important subject accounts for much
OF the crime and the pauperism of the day.
VINO are these children sweeping the cross
lngs with broken broom and be gging of YOU
penny as you 60 by? Who are these lost
souls gliding under the gaslight, in thin
shawls? All, they are the victims of want;
IN many of the cases the forecast of parents
and grandparents might have prohibited it,
God only knows how they struggled to do
right. They prayed until the tears froze
on their cheeks, they sewed on the sack
until the breaking of the day; but they
could not get enough money to pay the
rent; they could not get enough money to
decently clothe themselves; and one day in
that wretched home the angel of purity and |
the angel of crime fought great fight be-
tween the empty bread tray and the fireless |
hearth, and the blackwinged angel
shrieked: AHA! have won the day."
o, man, before forty eight hours have |
passed away, appear at the desk of some |
ot onr great life insurance companies, have |
.he stethescope of the physician put to
your heart and lungs, and by the seal of |
some honest company decree that your !
children shall not be subjected to the hu- !
initiation of financial struggle in the days
)f your demise.
But must ask the men engaged in life
insurance business whether they feel the
Importance of their trust. and charge them
must that they need divine grace to helm
hem in their work. In this day, when
here are 30 many rivalries in your line of
BUSINESS, you will be tempted 10 overstate
he amount of assets and the extent of the
urplus, and you will be tempted to abuse
he franchise of the company, and make
p the deficits of one year by adding some
Il the receipts of another year; and YOU
lill be tempted to send out mean,
nonymous circulars derogatory to other
ompGnies, forgetful of the fact that anony-
lous communication means only two !
nings-the cowardice of the author, and |
be lnefiiciency of the police in allowing
uch thing to be dated anywhere save in
lde of peni entiary. Under the mighty | i
ressure many have gone down, and YOU |
i'll follow them if you have too much con-
dence in yourself, and do not appeal 10
lie Lord for positive help. But if any
you belong to that miscreant class of ,
eople who, without any financial ability, =
rganize themselves into what they call a :
le- insurance company, with pretended !
lpital OF 5000, 600 or $500, ,OOO, then vote
ourself into the lucrative position, and l
len take all the premiums for yourself,
nd then, at the approach of the State '
uperintendent, drop all into the Z
lnds of those life insurance undertakers =
hose business it is to gather up the re- B
aims of defunct organizations and bury &
EN- in their own vauIt-then, say, YOU |
I'd better get out of the business, and dis
'rge the widows houses you have swal-
wed. But my word is to all those who
Q legitimately engaged in the business. Il
ou ought to be better than other men, q
Vt only because of the responsibilities n
at rest upon you, but because the truth =,
ever confronting you that your stay on - y
rth is uncertain, and your life matter =
few days or years. Do not those b
ack- edged letters that come into your u
ice make you think2 Does not the doc q
r'a nartifnnia fhn dnnth r.;,,r -. In